[1.2.1.2] Fire Skeleton Defiler - Dual Wield, Crucible 170, Veteran Callagadra :)

Grim Dawn Classes, Skills and Builds
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To know how to set up this presentation of a build of mine I checked out some other ones, seems like its common courtesy to start with one of these beauties.

 

FOREWORD

New to the forum, because I finally have a build, that I think is worth sharing with you, lovely people, my 4th build ever.

You'd probably like to know why anyone would go for this unlucky specimen of a combination so soon.

Well, the conjurer I played before felt op with pets and kinda sluggish without.

So while I was thinking about what build to start next, I got this particular Korvaak's Burning-Blade and knew I gotta give this little challenge of a build a try…

 

THE BUILD

GRIMTOOLS

(I gave Soul Harvest a try, somehow the improvement is negligible.)

 

LEVELING PROCESS

Played SSF up until level 94, Necromancer's pets are fun, really fast and only struggle a tiny bit around level 65 up to level 75, when their defenses are temporarily lacking a bit…

Didn't die once with this powerhouse, maybe its time to start a build in hardcore… ;)

After reaching level 94 I reworked the whole build and got from wave 120 all the way to 170 in crucible.

 

EQUIPMENT

Weapon 1: Korvaak's Burning-Blade

- essential, buffs pets and Flame Touched, also converts pet physical and vitality to fire damage

Weapon 2: Mythical Dracarris

- skill points for Demolitionist, very strong buff to Flame Touched and pets

Amulet: Conduit of Undying Whispers

- adds fire damage to pets, helps to get to 100% pet vitality and physical to fire damage conversion (very expensive to craft - with a decent pet damage conversion role on your blade something like Bysmiel's Iris is a good alternative, it even provides a nice little heal and flat RR, this doesn't stack with Agonizing Flames RR though)

Helm: Chosen Visage

- buffs Flame Touched and pets

Rings: Ring of Khonsar

- more fire damage for pets, converts the flat pet chaos damage from our Chest Armor to fire damage

Shoulders: Zantarin's Mantle

- really helps with skill points, elemental resistance for pets

Chest Armor: Mythical Fiendmaster Raiment

- flat chaos damage for pets (which gets converted to fire), lots of resistances

Gloves: Mythical Touch of the Everliving Grove

- nice little heal and pierce resistance for pets

Belt: Mythical Pack of Deadly Means

- best option to allow dual wielding, as I don't wanna change helm, relic or medal

Pants: Bysmiel-Sect Legguards

- farmed like 15 and didn't get a single pet affix, so that's the best I can do

Relic: Mogdrogen's Ardor

- skill points, buffs for pets and flat physical pet damage which gets converted to fire by the Korvaak's Burning-Blade and the Conduit of Undying Whispers

Medal: Wendigo Gaze

- skill points, nice buffs to pets and an additional skeleton

Boots: Mythical Fiendflesh Greaves

- skill points for Blight Fiend and nice pet buffs, also strong damage absorption

 

PERFORMANCE

The campaign was a breeze, skeletons really deal a lot of damage.

Crucible 170 is quite doable with lots of kiting.

Did beat callgadra on Veteran in around 5 – 6 min, Elite would require crazy amounts of kiting, don't wanna do that for like 30min…

 

I really hope you did enjoy the little read.

Feedback of every kind is very welcome and appreciated.

Thank you very much.

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I was interested in finding a good setup for Skeletons as a focus so I have been levelling this and its been a lot of fun.

I can not say much on the very late-game usability, mostly because I am still working on completing the gear, BUT it is good.

I probably got very lucky getting both feet and hand Mythics during my leveling, even the Dracarris so there isn’t much left to complete this.

While leveling I went for Ascendant Cowls for a bit to focus more on skeletons until the build got more complete so there are some nice alternatives that work very well.

I farmed a relatively early Burning-Blade by doing the Totem that spawns in Carian Docs. I do not know the variant but there is a relatively frequent one that will spawn Korvaak Champions and its pretty simple to get to early. Later game I farmed Ruins of Abyd and that was a nice place for it too.

I will need to farm Legendries now, but I just want to say that I have had a good time with this.

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Thank you for your kind words, glad you’re enjoying the build. :slight_smile:

It is important to keep in mind, that this build is kinda special, as the 2 masteries don’t synergize very well.
This limits our potential, doesn’t hold us back though, from making spooky skeletons play with fire… :fire::bone::skull:
A very small amount of items (compared to other combinations of masteries) does help immensly in making the Defiler viable though, e.g. Korvaak’s Burning-Blade.
So if you don’t want to go hunting for celestials, the build is perfectly viable for all other content, some of it might require some kiting though.

If you’re interested in a more serious approach, while still focusing on skeletons, you should have a look at this build:

@Maya is very well known for her excellent pet builds, being really good at playing them and pushing deep SR.
Here you go:

Thanks again, good luck out there

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